Mendocino Coast this June

[SSSdave]

I've decided not to visit Sierra Nevada areas this current month and instead do one or two trips north to the Mendocino coast. Four of us recently returned from 3 days car camping along the West Walker so have seen what central Sierra conditions look like. The large mid April storm peaked in the Mendocino area with 4 of 8 inches of rain that shows on recent Sentinel Hub satellite images as greener coastal bluffs versus say Sonoma County coastlines further south of Navarro that are already mostly brown. Those coastal areas and others north of Eureka given cool often foggy marine air climates, are usually the last lower elevation regions to go through their spring greening and flowering cycles so will have later season flower species. Not an easy region to car camp on the cheap as I tend to do, (even public campgrounds all over $50/night) however have figured out the obscure back road locations and logistics to do so given caltopo public lands mode, Google Earth, and other web sources I've researched.

[BigMan]

Would love to hear more, David, given that I'm starting to get more serious about photography and my adoration for that region.

Given your comments about blooms, I wonder if the rare Mendocino Spineflower is peaking at MacKerricher?

Geoff

[SSSdave]

I had to look that rare species up to see what it looks like. In 2015, had wandered about northern areas of those dunes and vaguely recall seeing something like that I tried to photograph but recall it was a breezy morning so no images, just explored.

https://www.davidsenesac.com/2015_Trip_ ... html#may29
snippet:

...Awoke dawn Friday May 29, and didn't waste time motoring south down Highway 1. At Mackerricher State Beach got out and hiked dunes for an hour unproductively. Another day of coastal overcast without sun but now breezes had picked up...


I like dune flower subjects given an uncommon calm morning, as they can often be nicely isolated against background sands allowing excellent close-up focus stacking detail. Sand verbena: